The Ancient Lantern
by ChimeraDragon
Summary: While on a routine mission John and Rodney stumble across a some strange jewelery. What will this mean for them?
1. Chapter 1

**The Ancient Lantern**

Chapter 1

Why did things always start out so... so... normal?

Nothing on Atlantis every started with big warning bells.

Well, the Wraith did. Kind of...

But how was Rodney supposed to know THIS would happen?

"Stop laughing and help me figure out what it does!" Rodney growled, snapped and threatened. For the last hour he'd been trying to get the stupid Ancient device off his finger. His right middle finger.

A ring that could put itself on? That sounded neat.

In theory.

Theory could bite Rodney's ass at the moment. He just wanted to stupid glowing ring. And it just had to be teal colored. He didn't even know what it did.

But again, that was beside the point.

John was currently curled up in a ball on the floor, braying with laughter and holding his sides because they hurt from laughing so much.

"I said, STOP LAUGHING AND HELP!" Rodney yelled, truly pissed off this time. He couldn't get the ring off once it had decided to put itself on him. And it was emmiting weird energy readings.

"I.. sorry... it's just too priceless," John said, wiping tears from his eyes as he managed to bring himself under a semblance of control. "It's irremovable jewelery."

"Yes, I can see that Colonel. Now would you mind thinking 'off' at it so I can remove it and put it in a box for examination later? Or are you going to start braying like a donkey again?" Rodney snapped.

"I think I'm going to laugh while I think 'off' at it, if you don't mind. Doctor McKay," John said with a half laugh as he walked over.

"You can be such a child sometimes," Rodney said with a pout.

"Aw, now don't be that way. I'll find a way to make it up to you. at least it's not anywhere... sensitive, right?" John asked as he put his hand on Rodney's and concentrated.

"I suppose you're right." Rodney watched and tried to stay still, hoping that if John just thought at it hard enough the stupid thing would come off.

"It's not working," John said after a few minutes.

"What do you mean it's not working?"

"Well, normally I get a kind of background buzz when I'm trying to think at Ancient tech but this? I'm... it's..." John struggled to find the words he was looking for. "It's just like it' snot even there. Was there anything with it?"

"No, it was just lying there. And all I did to provoke it was to brush my hand over it. I was just trying to find a way to get the panel working."

"Does it hurt?"

"What?"

"Does it hurt?"

"Um, no. Why would you ask that?"

"Well, if it doesn't hurt then let's get all the info we can and head back to Atlantis. I'm sure with all the people we've got there we'll figure something out. Right? After all, once you've had some blue Jello I'm sure you'll be able to concentrate more. Then you'll have this figured out in no time and we'll be laughing about it before you know it," John said, trying to sound as encouraging as he could.

"I guess you're right," Rodney sighed. "Did you see anything else in here?"

"You told me to stay put and not think 'on' at anything until you'd been through the room and had a chance to check."

"Yeah, well, I'm fairly certain nothing else is going to come out and try to get us."

"Don't say that, you'll tempt fate."

"Colonel, I don't believe in fate," Rodney said matter-of-factly. He tapped a few commands into his tablet with a long suffering sigh.

"Yeah, but she sure loves you," John said giving him a winning smile. He walked over to a console opposite the one Rodney was working on and started looking around. He was thankful for the lessons on the inner workings of the Ancient consoles that Rodney had been giving him as he knelt down to try and remove damaged crystals and reroute the power.

"You find anything over there? Spare crystals? A tablet with power?" Rodney called a few minutes later.

"Nope, nothing at all," John replied at he reached further into the console and something slid against his hand.

Something that rolled back onto his hand.

And then onto his finger.

And stayed there.

"Son of a bitch," John growled as he pulled his hand out to look at his own right hand in disbelief.

"What!" Rodney demanded as he ran over to see if John was alright. He was certain he'd see charred flesh or some horrible junk that was eating away at the other man's hand.

What he saw was almost worse than he expected.

Almost.

"You didn't."

"Apparently I did. And why's it glowing ... purple?" John looked down at the ring that looked just like Rodney's. Only in purple.

"I can't believe it. What was this? Some demented jewelry factory? Did they have nothing better to do with their time than to mess around with ... with... rings!" Rodney gave an exasperated huff and added a few notes to his tablet.

"Well, they were looking for ways to defeat the Wraith. maybe this is a prototype for something else. Something... I don't know..." John shrugged and looked at Rodney with an expression somewhere between confusion and desperation.

"I have no idea what they were doing in this lab, but whatever it was, I don't think it was going to help them defeat the Wraith. I mean, how does glowing jewelery help them fight the Wraith. It makes no viable sense. How would something that... maybe you're right. Maybe once we figure out how to get these things working we'll be able to use them to do something cool."

"What kind of something were you thinking of? Invisibility? Tracking device? Camouflage?" John asked, trying to think of all the possibilities.

"I don't know, but I'm sure something will present itself soon enough," Rodney replied. He typed a few more things on his tablet and moved to set it down when they heard the rumbling.

That was never a good sound.

Above ground it was worrying.

But in a 10,000 year old, underground Ancient lab it was down right terrifying.

And they had no quick way out. It had taken John and Rodney almost twenty minutes to get to the dimly lit lab.

They weren't going to make it out of there.

John looked at Rodney with a look of shock and terror.

"Do you think we're better off staying here or running for it?" Rodney asked, face serious. He was clearly nervous but willing to do whatever John recommended.

"I say we stay put. This place has been in here a while, hopefully it'll stay standing," John suggested quietly. He gave a careful look around the room and noted there was one console the both of them could fit under. Mostly. But it would have to do.

Rodney saw the console at the same time and they quickly made their way over, hoping it would provide enough shelter for the both of them.

"Hopefully we'll be okay," John said trying to sound hopeful.

"Yeah, but I don't know how well that's gonna turn out," Rodney sighed as he clutched his tablet to his chest protectively. He felt John's strong presence against his back as they huddled together. They turned so their backs were facing the debris that had started to fall from the ceiling.

"This royally sucks," John groused as he watched the dust and occasional rock come down from the roof.

"Well, at least it's not 'rockin' too much," Rodney replied, trying his hand a being optimistic. He knew he was failing a bit, but the half laugh he dragged out of John was more than worth it.

And then the walls started shaking even harder than before as a new tremor ripped through the ground underneath them.

"Oh no..." Rodney moaned.

"Shit..." John whined in agreement.

And that's when the ceiling collapsed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Why aren't we dead?" came out of the sudden lack of rumbling and crashing.

"I have no idea," came the slightly confused response. John and Rodney leaned back slightly, looking at each other as they looked around them, and the lack of destruction. They were leaning against each other, and as far away from the edges of the console as they could get.

"It looks like these rings created some kind of... force field," Rodney said at last, his voice wavered slightly in uncertainty. He kept his arm out, unwilling to risk breaking the connection with the shield and his own ring. He noticed that where John's shield was his shield wasn't. It was strange but intriguing.

"This is kinda cool, didn't I see this in a comic book once?" John asked as he moved his arm a little and noticed no change in the shielding around them.

"Oh, don't even go there. I don't even want to think about the kinds of jokes that will start when we get back to Atlantis wearing these. It's bad enough with the symbol on them. A circle between two lines? Really? This is just... just... wrong!" Rodney whined slightly. He took another look at his own right with a sigh of exasperation. "This is so not fair."

"Why are you so upset about this? It's a portable directional shield. And it's probably rechargeable," John said with a shrug. He looked at the varying purple of his own shield, admiring the various shades.

"You don't recognize what this looks like?" Rodney demanded incredulously.

"Not really, just that it reminds me of Superman... not that it's him, but ... I think it was called the Justice League, or something like that. Right? I didn't get to see many cartoons as a kid. My father thought it was a waste of time and money. Then I joined the air force," he chuckled at the last part. "Served him right. He should have let me watch more cartoons."

Rodney resisted the urge to beat his head against the console they were hiding under. "It's the symbol of the Green Lantern," he explained slowly. He sighed. "But you're right about it being from the Justice League. Though he did get his own run, and last time I checked they're making him his own series. He's always been one of those backup guys. Can do just about anything within the spectrum of green. It was really funny in the beginning when he couldn't' affect anything that was yellow. They gave the comics such a hard time about that. Then they changed it so it was just that his arch nemesis used yellow. Made them stand apart from each other."

John stared at the scientist next to him. "I thought you didn't really watch cartoons as a kid."

"I didn't. But I did read a lot of comic books in my time. I actually found it a nice distraction from my studies from time to time," Rodney said with a note of fondness in his voice. He looked over at John for a moment before noticing the other man could move his arm and hand around a bit. He concentrated and found that he could actually FEEL the connection to the Ancient rings the two of them wore.

"Okay, so, what's the plan then?" John asked.

Rodney gave him a withering look. "I think the 'plan' is to concentrate on these," he gestured to the ring on his finger with his other hand, "to keep the ceiling from crashing down on our heads and try to find a way out of here. After that, we head to Atlantis to run a battery of tests to see how they work and what they can do. And we'll see what we can do about getting them off."

"I see, and now do you plan on getting out of here?" John asked conversationally.

Rodney rolled his eyes. "You use your ATA gene; you know the one that makes most Ancient technology roll over and beg for you, to bash our way out of here and move rocks and whatnot out of our way while I keep up the shielding that's keeping all of that," he gestured towards the ceiling, "off of us."

John tried to hold in his laughter at Rodney's serious face. "Yes, sir, Doctor McKay, Sir!" He gave the other man a sloppy salute.

"Oh, grow up, would you?"

"I don't wanna grow up, I'm a..."

"Don't even THINK about finishing that," Rodney warned, voice low and dangerous.

"I won't..." John promise, but his eyes still held the laughter his previous statement had elected.

"I'm sure you won't," Rodney replied, the look in his eyes promised cold showers and problematic transporters if it came up again in regard to this incident.

"Okay, so, you're gonna make the shield and I'm going to bash our way out of here?"

"Didn't I just say that?"

"Yeah, I'm just making sure I heard you right," John replied as he stuck his tongue out.

Rodney just rolled his eyes and sighed, picking his tablet up off the floor and tucking it under one arm. "Are you ready to try this or what?"

"I don't see that we have a lot of options at this point, so let's try it."

"Good, come through on this side, I know I can hold it up over here. And I don't think I can move things you're working on and vice versa."

"I think you're right. The shields appear to have opposite polarities," John replied thoughtfully looking at where the two shields met above their heads.

"You're smart side is showing," Rodney singsonged.

"Be quiet you. I'm trying to be a super hero for the moment," John huffed. "And don't tell anyone, they think I get through all this on luck alone."

Rodney half smiled. "Yes, your secret is safe with me.

"Good, maybe I'll let you in on another secret later on." Rodney gave him an odd look and John merely laughed. "I'm not telling until later. It's incentive to get out of here alive."

"You... you!" Rodney huffed. "You can be so annoying at times."

John merely smirked.

"Oh, just grow up and help me. I'd rather not be stuck down here forever," Rodney huffed, still irritated by John's nonchalant attitude.

John nodded; getting his laughter under control, and thought the shield on his side to dissipate slowly. The ceiling shuddered but didn't fall right away, instead it started crumbling, chunks falling at at time.. he moved his hand over to Rodney's side and thought of a hand pushing the rocks back, closing his eyes to be able to concentrate better on the image in his head. He made sure to try and avoid interfering with Rodney's shield.

"Dude..." Rodney whispered, voice barely above a whisper.

John's eyes flew open, wanted to know what Rodney was looking at. He saw a giant see-through purple hand pushing the rocks back and making a tunnel for them to walk through.

"Did YOU just say 'dude'," John asked, unwilling to trust what he had thought he'd heard.

Rodney rolled his eyes at John. "Your elf ears would pick up on that wouldn't they?"

"I don't have elf ears!" John protested, putting one hand up to his ear.

"Have you ever looked at them objectively? You have elf ears," Rodney replied. "Everyone thinks so. In fact I got an email asking me if I thought it was a sign that you've got a stronger ATA gene."

"You have got to be kidding me," John mumbled under his breath.

"You heard me," Rodney replied, tone slightly acidic. He held himself aloof for a moment before breaking down in peals of laughter. "I'm serious though. I really did get that kind of an email. I had to read it three times to see if I was reading it right. Then I sent a message back asking if it was some kind of joke. The person on the other end said they were very serious."

"I can't believe everyone thinks I have elf ears," John whined. "I'm not an elf."

"No, but you've got a very strong expression of the Ancient gene. Maybe they developed pointy ears during their evolution and then it went away? Or it could be the cross breeding with humans caused it and that's where we get the stories about elves and vulcans."

"You know, I really wouldn't be all that surprised," John sighed. He closed his eyes again and went back to concentrating, this time he pictured a drill in his head, cutting through the rock to tunnel their way out."

"Now that's cool," Rodney commented dryly, but he had a small smile on his face as he said it.

"I know, isn't it? I don't know which of us is more excited by it," John nearly giggled with his excitement. Nearly.

"Okay, we get out of here and figure out what all these things can do," Rodney agreed. "Then... we'll see from there. We also have to try and figure a way to get them off."

"Are you sure about that?" John whined.

"Yes, I'm sure. Some of the tests we'll want to run on them shouldn't be done with humans in the room," Rodney replied with a roll of his eyes.

"That's not very comforting, Rodney," John warned as they neared the entrance. They saw the very surprised faces of their waiting team members.

"You made it out. What's that?" Ronon asked as he gestured to the rings and glowing shapes.

"We'll explain later," John replied as he finished punching a hole for them to walk out of. Rodney moved slowly, making sure to keep up the shield as he made his way out. As soon as he dropped it the cave collapsed.

"Well, now that's over, let's get back to Atlantis and try to figure out what these things are for," Rodney sighed.

"Sounds good to me, how about you two? Find anything interesting?" John asked. Ronon and Teyla both shook their heads in the negative. "Okay, then back to Atlantis it is."


End file.
